{"id":21670,"date":"2019-07-03T13:07:24","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T17:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=21670"},"modified":"2019-07-03T13:12:03","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T17:12:03","slug":"a-fine-strategy-making-deportable-fugitives-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2019\/07\/03\/a-fine-strategy-making-deportable-fugitives-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fine Strategy? Making Deportable Fugitives Pay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Immigration\nattorneys are in an uproar because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is levying fines on illegal aliens<\/a> who have deportation orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A\nmore reasonable reaction: Why wasn\u2019t this tried years ago?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roughly a\nhalf-million illegal aliens in the U.S. had outstanding deportation orders in\n2018 and were classified as fugitives, according to ICE. The Immigration and Nationality Act<\/a> grants ICE the authority\nto impose civil fines on illegally present aliens who have been ordered removed\nor failed to voluntarily depart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One headline-grabbing ICE notice<\/a> went to a fugitive holed\nup in a \u201csanctuary church\u201d in Ohio. The June 25 letter informed Edith Espinal\nMoreno of the agency\u2019s intention to fine her $497,777. An immigration judge had ordered Espinal, 42,\nremoved from the country two years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rosa Ortez Cruz\n— another church-dwelling, fugitive — received a notice that ICE intends to\nfine her $314,007 for having \u201cconnived or conspired\u201d to avoid deportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Immigration attorneys and their dodgy clients could\nafford to wait out the government before President Donald Trump entered office.\n\u201cMost were spared deportation under the Obama\nadministration because they had U.S.-born children or no criminal records,\u201d the\nWashington\nPost<\/a> observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, with fines running as\nmuch as $800 per day, the cost of flouting deportation orders is getting\nserious. Federal authorities started assessing penalties in December, and ICE\nis right to use every legal tool at its disposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In theory, monetary threats are an incentive for\nillegally present aliens to clear out of the country. Yet it\u2019s unclear how the\nadministration will enforce collection from elusive, no-account migrants. ICE\nhas not disclosed if any fines have actually been paid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Noting indigent cases like Espinal and Ortez, we\nwouldn\u2019t be shocked to see more than a few demand letters bouncing back to ICE,\nstamped \u201cReturn to Sender.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, the primary and ultimate goal remains: to finally remove those 500,000 deportable fugitives, whether they pay a fine or not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n